


Weeklong Whirlwind

by TziPouring



Series: SabeAniDala [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Queen's Shadow Series - E. K. Johnston
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Canon Compliant, Complicated Relationships, Declarations Of Love, F/F, Hair Braiding, Hair-pulling, Handmaidens, Kneeling, Missing Scene, Naboo Royal Handmaidens (Star Wars), Oral Sex, Shower Sex, Strap-Ons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:55:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29693985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TziPouring/pseuds/TziPouring
Summary: A sexy story of the week Sabé spends at Padmé's residence preparing for Mon Mothama's party.It takes place between chapters 12 and 13 of Queen's Shadow.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Sabé
Series: SabeAniDala [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075931
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Weeklong Whirlwind

**Author's Note:**

> Did you hear that E.K. Johnston is writing a 3rd Padmé book that takes place during the clone wars? I cannot contain my excitement. Enjoy my middling smut before we get the sure-to-be-incredible, but likely much less sex-filled real story :-). Anyway, i'm going to call this canon compliant for now, but It probably won't stay that way come November 2nd 🎊

Sabé steadied her breathing as she rode the elevator up to Padmé’s senatorial suite **_._ ** She wasn’t really nervous, but she was glad to have never lost the habit of controlling her breathing. The doors opened and she was welcomed into Senator Amidala’s new residence -- maybe not so new anymore -- by Mariek’s most professional, warm smile. The older woman led her to one of the guest rooms to drop off her things before escorting her back up to the main suite, chatting amiably about the upcoming week.

“We’re...well...the handmaidens anyway, have been modifying Corin’s uniform for you,” Mariek explained, opening the door to reveal Padmé and her new handmaidens working in the dressing room. 

“Good to see you,” Mariek said and took her leave, leaving Sabé to stand decidedly non-awkwardly in the doorway.

Padmé’s heart skipped as she stood still, expression neutral taking in Sabé’s face in the doorway. Her own face had to stay frozen, for Dormé to use as a model for Cordé and she had to stay still, so Versé wouldn't poke her while adjusting the pins on Corin’s guard uniform. Those constraints held her together though.  _ Sabé was here.  _ And she wasn’t sure how she could appropriately express the combination of exhilaration and relief she felt. 

“We saved you dinner,” Padmé said, moving only her eyes to point at the corner where a tray sat warming a pair of steamed buns. 

“Have some and I can do you next,” Dormé said, applying another brush to Cordé’s makeup before shifting her gaze to Padmé in uniform. “Or if you don’t mind...try on the uniform first.”

“Of course,” Sabé replied. She shed her robe as she always had, but when Versé and Dormé helped Padmé out of her clothes and her into them...she couldn’t avoid the strangeness of it all. So familiar and yet so foreign. How many times had she and Padmé exchanged clothes just like this, but these hands on her were unfamiliar...though they must be familiar to Padmé at this point. Once they had adjusted the pins Sabé parked herself in the corner to munch on the steamed buns while Dormé finished Cordé’s face. 

“Let’s see Mi’lady,” Dormé said, drawing Padmé’s attention back to her and away from Sabé’s retreat. Padmé turned to look at Cordé and saw her mirror image, a distinctly strange sensation, especially with Sabé positioned behind her. She wondered if her first handmaiden found this experience as uncanny as she did. 

“Wow!” was all she could say. Dormé smiled proudly as Sabé approached.

“Where do you need me?”

Padmé watched Dormé repeat the process on Sabé, marveling as her original decoy transformed to look more her double than ever before. Her triple? Cordé still wore her face too. After another half an hour of makeup and preparation for the next day, Padmé dismissed Cordé and Versé. The makeup took a while to get right and it was getting late. 

Dormé finally nodded in approval at Padmé and Sabé, perfectly identical. It had taken her about an hour but she was confident she could cut the time down dramatically. She handed a mirror to Sabé and said triumphantly, “I’ve got it”, before handing them each a warm, damp towel to undo her work with. “..And with that..I think I’ll take my leave tonight, if it’s alright with you milady?”

Padmé nodded “Of course, thank you Dormé, excellent work as usual.”

Sabé stared at her face in the mirror, it was Amidala, alright, but it was more Padmé than she’d ever looked before. Strange when Padmé had never felt further from her. She followed the new handmaiden with her eyes as she left. It was kind and perhaps knowingly perceptive of her to give the two of them alone time..though, they  _ were _ old friends. 

“She’s good,” Sabé offered. It was strange to be here. Padmé’s life had continued on without her. New handmaidens, new quarters, new planet, a whole new senatorial persona. She was beginning to sense the new rhythm of things, but there was no denying that she was an outsider here. Before she could glower in that realization though, Padmé had scooted closer, placed a hand on her cheek and started wiping the makeup off her face with the other. She flushed. They hadn’t touched in months. But how could something as chaste as this get her going so quickly? Things had changed a lot since last time...  _ Did Padmé still want this?  _ Sabé felt Padmé reach to grab a dropped towel and as she moved to pick it up, Padmé’s fingers brushed against her knuckles in that way of singular, familiar intimacy. Sabé decided to chance it and quirked her mouth at Padmé in a clear “D _ o you want to…”.  _ Padmé gave one hard swipe of the towel across Sabé’s lips, removing the paint before covering them with her own. Sabé returned the kiss as hungrily as she dared.

“I’ve missed you more than I can say,” Padmé said when they finally broke, pleased at finding a way to express the depth of her emotion without gushing too much and disturbing whatever new balance they were about to discover.  _ More than I can say indeed. _

“The feeling is entirely mutual. Now, is there a better place you had in mind for this because I do NOT want the first time I make a senator cum to be in the ‘fresher!”

Padmé laughed and pulled her dear friend in for another kiss. Relishing the warmth and familiarity of those lips on her.

“I DO have a bed you know, though…I was kind of hoping we’d get to…” She glanced toward the shower.

“Hmmm, that can be arranged, but I stand by my earlier statement...” 

Padmé nodded, delighted at the not distant, but still familiar thrill. _ She was not to cum in the shower.  _ Got it.

There wasn’t much to take off, they’d both been nearly in basics for the makeup extravaganza. Padmé turned on the water and dragged Sabé inside the translucent enclosure. Water thrummed around them everywhere, coming chiefly from the spouts at the sides, but also pleasantly from above.

Sabé moaned, “We need to file a complaint back on Naboo, I’ve been in here less than 5 seconds and this is already the best shower I’ve ever had, Coruscant can not have better shower technology than the palace.” 

Padmé laughed out loud. She missed this. Sabé’s critical humor. Joking about old times. 

No one made her laugh quite like Sabé. Instead of retorting though, she pulled her close and nipped at her ear.

“Mmm I think it’s about to get much better,” she added enticingly.

Sabé let her head tilt back on Padmé’s shoulder and revelled at the sensation of the water hitting her face, the warmth of Padmé against her back. Things were starting to feel right again. Graceful, sudsy hands cupped her breasts, prompting her back to arch even more into — Senator— Amidala. Padmé’s hands spread around her torso, down to her belly, ghosting at the top of her mound before ascending again to clean—err—fondle her breasts again. “Ah!” she gasped as the slippery hands tweaked one of her nipples. Normally she’d guard her noises, but it had been so long and she’d missed this too much.

Padmé wound her hands around Sabé’s torso, cupping breasts, kneading into abs, then flipping her to pull at shoulder blades and back muscles alike. She had missed her so much. She stopped her exploration to pull Sabé into a fierce hug and leaned in further when it was returned.

“I’ve missed you,” she exhaled into Sabé’s ear.

“So you’ve said,” Sabé replied.

Padmé just kissed her with tight lips, unable to stop smiling. She renewed the suds and let her hands follow her lips down Sabé’s body. She noticed little things though, healing cuts and bruises that were unfamiliar, and her smile faltered.  _ Were those wounds in her name? _ She filed the thought away for later, determined not to ruin this moment. 

Sabé let Padmé explore her body for a while. It was part soothing, part erotic and part vaguely uncomfortable, like she was being scrutinized for all the ways she’d changed since they’d parted. She shook off the feeling and pulled Padmé up for an excuse to suds her own hands and begin her own inspection. She worked the soap into Padmé’s shoulders and back, relaxing into the quiet hmms of pleasure that replaced the worry she knew Padmé had been feeling. She kissed her neck and got just the moan she’d expected. Kissed her clavicle to a hissed curse, kissed the space between her breasts.  _ Padmé _ . She may be different, but here she was beautifully familiar. She took one nipple in her mouth and sucked it reverently while she toyed with the other in her hand.

Padmé shuddered as the ripples of pleasure washed over her. Sabé was right here, RIGHT HERE and she needed her everywhere, inside her, on top of her, in between her legs.  _ She was not to cum in the shower _ . But she needed SOMETHING to calm that sweet ache. And then Sabé was in between her legs, and though she was only washing, Padmé couldn’t help but moan in anticipation. It had been so long and she was done with these exploratory touches and teasing kisses. She  _ wanted _ , she  _ needed _ , she needed it now.

“You can touch yourself,” Sabé said, low and slow. It wasn’t a command, more of a suggestion. She watched as Padmé’s hand darted to her center and spread her lips to stroke. Sabé stared lustfully at the sight before positioning her own mouth to suck Padmé through her fingers. 

“AAAaaahhffff!” Padmé hissed from above, which Sabé guessed was some combination of ahh! and kriff, smushed together to not scream. She continued, moving her tongue to part those fingers and strike at Padmé’s clit. She felt Padmé’s free hand grip her head, but was surprised to find herself pulled up to standing.

“Sabé,” Padmé said breathlessly “I....you.. I can’t .. here.” Sabé understood. 

They finished washing in a rush, tying up hair and towelling each other dry as best they could against stolen kisses and tantalizing touches. Padmé dragged Sabé through the hall to her bed, where she was promptly pushed down. She saw Sabé grab at something in the bag she’d somehow managed to bring with them from the ‘fresher. Sabé clicked a round disk and tossed it aside. It gave a small whine before going silent.

“I asked that helpful blue astromech to stand guard outside your room tonight because this is noise cancelling. You don’t have to be quiet,” Sabé said with a wicked smile. Padmé moaned out loud, mostly from her increasingly desperate desire but also at the tantalizing idea of such freedom. They’d never been able to let go like that before. 

Sabé sunk to her knees and leaned into Padmé. She decided right then and there that this was where she wanted to be when she made  _ Senator _ Amidala cum for the first time.

“I want to stay on my knees,” she announced to Padmé who could only nod back in lustful wonderment. They shifted together effortlessly -- despite the low bed -- until they found the right position with Padmé’s knees spread open and bent while Sabé stretched forward with Padmé’s hips in her hands. She didn’t hesitate, just swiped a rough line with her tongue, drinking in the familiar sweetness and delightful intimacy of Padmé. She played roughly around Padmé’s folds, teasing her clit but never lingering too long, just enjoying what she’d been missing. When Padmé’s noises had turned sufficiently desperate, she began to lay down a pattern in earnest, driving her to the edge where she planned to keep her. She swiped up and down with her tongue until Padmé’s feet began to dig into her shoulders. 

Always mindful of her duty, Sabé stopped to demand “No bruises! but you can pull my hair.” 

Padmé froze at the invitation and sat up just a bit. She shifted her feet to the edge of the bed but resumed bucking as Sabé continued her rhythm. Padmé sunk her hands into Sabé’s long brown hair, undoing the ties of earlier. She pulled as Sabé swirled and sucked. Her clit aflame, Padmé fell with her back arching, hands tugging Sabé by her hair. She’d been on the edge so long and now she could feel it start to roll through her. “Yes, Sabé! Sabé, yes” she repeated until she couldn’t even form the words anymore. She moaned out loud and Sabé just kept going, She tugged and tugged at that long hair like reins until she came, wailing like she’d never done before, pleasure washing over her in an endless cascade of waves.

Padmé relaxed her grip and sat up to pet at Sabé’s brow, trying to fix her hair as her lover finished her off. Sabé came up glorious and glistening. Padmé took in the sight of her most devoted on her knees and thought she could melt all over again.

“Mmm, get off your knees and come here.” It was as close to a command as she ever said in bed without explicit permission to do so, but she couldn’t help it. 

Sabé helped Padmé pull her onto the bed to lie on top of her. She felt a little dazed. The air seemed to be saturated with the echoes of Padmé’s wails, as if the noise canceler had simply contained the sound, rather than dispersed it. To hear Padmé scream like that. She exhaled and looked into the face of her friend, her beacon, her queen, and knew Padmé was thinking the same thing. They didn’t need words. She leaned into Padmé’s hand cupping her cheek. 

“My beautiful lady,” Padmé said, with a fondness deep enough for Sabé to drown in. 

Padmé dropped her hand as Sabé leaned in to kiss her. She sunk into it, enjoying both the warmth of those well worked lips and the sweet tang of her own juices. Padmé pushed her knee up. Ready to return the favor, she parted Sabé’s thighs with her own. She shuddered at Sabé’s voice in her ear.

“Padmé...”

“You’re so kriffing wet for me,” Padmé cooed. 

Sabé stared at Padmé, enthralled, consumed. She was crouched over her, being rocked into her thigh. She was  _ so _ wet, sliding all over Padmé. 

“Padmé,” she said, louder, more desperately. Padmé looked up at her expectant.

”Sabé..?” she whispered the question.

“Anything. Make me come undone,” was Sabé’s response.

“Rock with me,” Padmé said, her voice still small. 

Sabé nodded and looked Padmé directly in the eyes. She started gently, taking in Padmé’s beautiful face as she slid up and down her increasingly slick thigh. Padmé’s hands traced her hips, gripped her breasts, squeezing them before twisting nipples. Every touch, every sensation ripped through her. Padmé flipped her over and traded her thigh for her hand, strokes becoming more precise, and Sabé felt her entrance teased.

“Yes please,” she encouraged. Padmé pushed inside and Sabé let herself go even further, rocking to take even more of Padmé’s hand as a second finger joined the first.

“I have your surprise,” Padmé said, panting with some combination of effort and arousal.

“What?” Sabé managed to eek out through lips tight with pleasure, her eyes squeezing against her impending release.

“Your harness?”

“Mmmhmm yes!” Sabé managed, clenching around Padmé’s fingers in both pleasure and anticipation.

Padmé kissed Sabé’s lips before tracing a path down to join her hand. She licked one punishing track up Sabé’s throbbing clit and pressed down on her from inside. With the promise of more to come later, she didn’t feel the need to go for long and slow now, especially since Sabé had said  _ anything _ . 

“Won’t you cum for me, my beautiful lady?” she asked, before reapplying her mouth.

In a hot rush of fire, Sabé did, enthralled and enlightened by all that was Padmé Amidala. She had barely recovered when her strap was thrust into her hands. Her clit still throbbed with want.

“Dress me?” Sabé asked, handing it back to Padmé so she could take a breath. Padmé pulled Sabé’s legs through the loops and kissed her back as she snapped it at the butt. 

“Fuck me?” Padmé said, mirroring Sabé’s earlier questioning tone and shifting to crouch on all fours on her bed.

“With pleasure,” Sabé said, adding “mine literally” as she cupped Padmé’s hip. She positioned herself behind and dragged hands reverently down Padmé’s back, laying kisses at her hips before she parted her lips and guided herself into Padmé from behind. 

Padmé moaned and pushed her hips back to take Sabé in fully, squirming, and Sabé knew what she wanted. Now fully seated with the electric velvet at her clit ready to hum, she snapped her hips forward and Padmé called out in ecstasy, “Just like that!”

Sabé gave her back a light nibble. “I know,” and snapped her hips again, moaning as it pleased her too. She moved freely now, pushing in and out of Padmé with the practiced harshness she knew her lady loved. She stroked her belly and fondled her breasts as she did, the crackling hum on her clit punishingly decadent. 

“Padmé,” she moaned.

“Yes, please can you say my name?” Padmé asked between panted breaths.  _ Could she? Could she do anything in this moment besides surrender to the pleasure she was thrusting into them both?  _ For Padmé, she could.

“Padmé,” Sabé said again after a particularly delightful thrust that left her clit screaming. She pressed on, sparks crinkling at the edge of her vision, she could come undone any second but she wouldn’t without Padmé. 

“Padmé!” She balanced on one arm to thrum Padmé’s clit in time with her thrusts.

“Sabé! Anhhhhhhhhh!” Padmé called before words failed her. She began to wail once more as the pleasure eroded all sense of self control. The voice undid Sabé who’s own release came crashing through her just after Padmé’s. 

Eventually they untangled, moving seamlessly until Padmé rested her head on Sabé’s belly so she could lay kisses at Sabé’s hips as she undid the strap. 

“What a clever piece of equipment this is.” 

Sabé knew the question beneath the statement, the one Padmé wouldn’t ask. “I’ll tell you about it someday, but not yet.” Keeping little things like this always made Padmé feel less like she was asking too much, and anyway, it would be a more enjoyable reveal on Naboo. 

“So tell me about the senators,” Sabé said seriously. Padmé began with Orn Free Ta of Ryloth, but had only gotten a sentence or two in when Sabé interrupted, shifting to sit with Padmé’s head still in her lap.

“Sit up, I need to watch you talk about them.”

She straightened the pillows for Padmé to lie against. 

Padmé sat up and leaned into her fluffy throne. She began to speak about each senator in turn. It was the sweetest feeling, both comforting and delightful to watch Sabé’s face morph to take on what she must be seeing in hers. All the ways Sabé just  _ knew _ her, knew exactly how to fit into her chaos. She felt revitalized, like she could finally feel (at least some of) the strength and conviction she’d been missing since she traded her crown for a senate seat. To be known like this was a most precious gift.

“Mina Bonteri is interesting, I like her a lot, but there’s something about her I just can’t figure out.”  _ Maybe you can? _

Sabé was enjoying this, staring into Padmé’s face as she relearned everything about her, hatching plans just like they’d done before. Their months apart were fading away. 

“That’s enough for tonight, you need to sleep. Should I stay?” Sabé said after they’d done a once over of all the key senators. 

Padmé nodded. “I’d like that. If we wake up to practice more in the morning no one will be the wiser.” Sabé shot Padmé her classic sardonic smile, but moved to snuggle up anyway.

“I’ve missed you so much too,” she finally allowed herself to say.

\--

The next morning Sabé donned a full guard’s uniform and took Typho’s place with Padmé in her senatorial pod. She studied the proceedings, memorizing every detail. She watched the Chancellor call order. The various senators spoke and cast votes. She couldn’t see faces, especially through her helmet, but the voices would help later. She watched the back of Padmé’s head too for clues, pleased that she didn’t need a full visual to know exactly how Padmé was feeling. 

When the session was over, they worked back at Padmé’s suite. Versé marked a space in the sitting room equal to the room where they’d make the switch. Padmé knew that part wouldn’t take long to get down, they’d done many such switches in confined spaces before. Once Sabé assumed the role as Senator, Padmé and her handmaidens took turns playing various colleagues and important beings likely to be at the party. Cordé did an uncanny Bail Organa impression, and Senator Amidala responded with the perfect amount of warmth and interest. Padmé tried her hand at Mina Bonteri and the Chancellor and the Senator responded with charm and determination. 

The practice got more complex as the week moved forward. Dormé, Cordé and Versé walking with and taking cues from Sabé as Amidala. The veranda, a public square, a museum of old republic art. Padmé watched from a distance with Typho or Mariek wearing her borrowed guard uniform. As always she took private delight in watching Sabé command from afar, taking cues from her with barely a glance. Crossed arms and Sabé loosened her posture, hand up in a false move to respond to a comm that was actually on the other side, and Senator Amidala charmingly prodded for more information to relay later. Padmé hoped her guilty pleasure went unnoticed by her staff. She’d long known there was no hiding it from Sabé, the intensity of their late night touches after switches left no doubt that her double both knew and shared the thrill, only in reverse. 

One night Padmé woke up to Sabé muttering “it burns” in her sleep, clutching at her thigh. But there was no  _ it _ that Padmé could see. Her brow furrowed. Sabé hadn’t had nightmares like this before… She pulled her close and would’ve woken her up but Sabé had already calmed. Padmé kissed her neck and let herself fall back off asleep surrounding her in an embrace.

Their evenings took on a pleasant rhythm. Once the guards retired, Versé would braid Padmé’s hair to set it for the morning while Dormé painted Corde’s face in the new style. Sabé read over notes and asked questions. Padmé and the 3 new handmaidens filled in gaps in her knowledge of Senator Amidala’s new role and persona. Sabé spoke phrases she might utter at the party in an increasingly refined Senator Amidala timbre and managed not to blush when Corde said, “I see why you’re the best at this, it’s easy to forget you’re not her.” The nights would finish with Dormé applying the makeup to Sabé. What had once taken an hour she could soon do in only 10 minutes. 

When the three retired Sabé would dutifully recite what she’d learned to Padmé, pretending to be Senator Amidala discussing her day. It was practice sure, but it was also a tease, since they both knew their fun would start as soon as she stopped. She barely noticed herself getting lost in it. Everything was Padmé: Padmé in bed with her, trading last musings before they fell asleep. Padmé between her legs, making her cum as the impossibly luxurious shower pelted her with water. Padmé asleep and vulnerable against her while she read endless briefings. Padmé underneath her, fists in her hair gasping as Sabé took her apart the way only she knew how. Padmé’s voice in her head, spilling out of her own mouth. Padmé as her handmaiden while she played the  _ queen in bed _ , commanding from a throne of pillows. Padmé watching from the shadows as her Senator Amidala told a delightful anecdote about the most interesting bids to replace broken statues in the palace after the battle of Naboo. It wasn’t the same as being part of the intimate circle of Queen Amidala’s reign, where the others might’ve said she was the most beloved, but they all shared a singular closeness. Here she was both the outsider and the intimate, the novice and the expert, the insider and the other and it was easy to get lost in it. 

The night before the party, Padmé sat in a bedroom chair gazing out the window while Sabé brushed her hair. Sabé’ wore her shoulders in such a way as to say  _ only closeness tonight, _ and Padmé was grateful for the obvious boundary. This wonderful, exhilarating, vibrant week was about to come to a close and they’d been so focused on preparing Sabé for the senate that she hadn’t really made time to ask her about anything else. Asking about the muttering in her sleep was too personal a question, so she tried a more general one.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Padmé asked.

Sabé kept brushing. Her first thought was  _ about what? _ But then Padmé continued,

“I feel like I’ve put my career above Shmi’s freedom, above your sacrifice.” It hit her.  _ Tatooine. _ She hadn’t thought about Tatooine all week. Guilt welled in her gut.  _ And I feel like I’ve failed you both _ , Sabé thought bitterly. She really didn’t think she could stand to have this conversation again, but she did feel she owed it to Padmé.

“You’re a senator, trying to fix things through official means is your job. Any change you make in the senate will be greater than saving one person and you’re only just getting started.. But Padmé, I’m going to try again.., that’s the plan. Just say the words, as soon as you don’t need me here.”  _ And you can’t guilt me about your choice _ . Sabé thought to add, but didn’t. 

Padmé turned to face Sabé, grasping her wrists with each hand. “It’s not the same as asking you to put yourself in danger for me, it’s asking you all over again to confront power without any of your own, to endure and witness trauma without any new resources, and even less contact and support.”

“I know. I would try again and again, Padmé, happily. That’s what it is to love you,” She said the words with intention. Love. It was not a word they threw around often and certainly not lightly, but this conversation was growing more and more unwieldy. She needed Padmé to know it as clearly as she could spell it out, while steering the conversation away from Tatooine.

“Even though I can’t love you with the same devotion?”

“You devote yourself to all of Naboo, to the whole galaxy, Padmé, I only have to worry about you,” Sabé said. “Putting me first isn’t how you love me...but maybe try this.” She took Padmé’s hand and squeezed it short and gentle. “Love” she said, and then released it for another squeeze, this one long and hard “you.”

Padmé tried the gesture with Sabé’s other hand. One squeeze, short and gentle, the next, tight and long.  _ Love you.  _ She did. It was a smart gesture too, the kind she could squeeze on a shoulder or arm that to an outsider would read as only increased insistence. 

“My love is so limited, Are you sure it’s enough?” she asked, aware that a simple hand gesture was nothing to match what she received in return. 

“More than,” Sabé responded plainly. It _was_ , she thought. If this week was any example... any more and she might be swallowed up whole. It was both too much and not enough and that would do for now. They’d find their balance again. She’d let herself fall fully into Padmé’s realm, but after tomorrow she was going to have to rediscover who she was in the outside world. 

Padmé sighed, turning to allow Sabé to take up the brush again. 

“I need you here on Coruscant for now,” she said, definitively, and Sabé started to relax.

“Then I’m here. Let me finish braiding your hair so we can go to bed. A senator needs her rest.” 

“Sabé,” Padmé said, not quite ready to drop the subject yet. The week had passed in a dream-like whirlwind and she’d been content to let the wind -- or whatever passed for it in exclusively urban Coruscant -- sweep them where it would for once. But Sabé’s devotion was singular, an endless pit that Padmé could draw from forever if she didn’t stop herself. Padmé was determined to reassert whatever balance she could. 

“This week’s been wonderful. But then tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow I go back to my apartment,” Sabé interrupted, trying . “You cast a longer shadow here on Coruscant, and I have to actually live in it to be effective.” 

Padmé exhaled, comforted by Sabé’s familiar hands weaving her hair. She felt relief and longing, love and solace. Sabé always knew just what needed to be done. One loose plait dropped to her back as Sabé started on the next. 

“You’re the one casting the shadow. You’re like my sun; you make everything brighter” Padmé said.

Sabé rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything, so Padmé continued. “Just promise me...That I won’t.. that this,” she squeezed Sabé’s hand twice, gentle and then tight, “won’t stop you from letting other people choose you.” She let the words drop awkwardly into an increasingly comfortable silence. 

“I promise. And I’ll still be yours,” Sabé reassured as she tied Padmé’s last braid. 

They made their way to bed together. When Sabé moved to spoon her, Padmé gave the most gentle of shoves in the other direction and threw an arm around her as Sabé surrendered to her embrace. 

“I love you,” Padmé whispered, squeezing one of Sabé’s hands in time to the words.

“Mmmhmm, love you more,” Sabé replied sleepily. Padmé let it slide, if nothing else, at least she could give her the last word.


End file.
